Article

Dysarthria refers to a collective name for a group of neurologic motor speech
disorders, resulting from central and/or peripheral nervous system abnormalities.
Speech alteration in Parkinson's disease, so-called hypokinetic dysarthria,
presents with prosodic insufficiency, related to a monotony of pitch and
intensity, a reduction of accentuation, variable speech rate and possible phoneme
imprecision. In most cases, voice is harsh and breathy. This symptom can affect
both voice and speech quality, as well as prosody and intelligibility. As a consequence, many patients complain about speech impairments, which affect their
communication in daily living activities. Perceptual and instrumental assessments
require different and numerous investigation methods, which use may help to
further understand the specific dysarthria pathophysiology.
This is of importance
in order to adjust treatments for dysarthria; as a matter of fact, dopa-therapy,
functional neurosurgery or even behavioural speech therapy have variable effects
on voice and speech quality in Parkinson's disease.
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Langue : FRANCAIS